Ten years ago this week was an eventful one for every American. It was doubly, or perhaps triply, so for us. While Monday, September 10, 2001 was just like any other day for many, it was also the day of Anne’s mom’s anticipated passing after a long battle with cancer. And of course with the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center buildings the next morning, we were thrust into an interesting predicament. Our wedding was scheduled for that next weekend, in New Orleans.

We decided, partly because the date, September 16, was Anne’s parents’ anniversary and thus important to us, and partly because we felt while it was important to acknowledge the loss of life, we should still, as the British might say, “Keep calm and carry on,” continue with our plans. (Anne’s Mom was adamant that we not move our wedding no matter what should happen with her health, but we still had a mini-ceremony at the end of August with close friends and family so she was able to see us get “married” (in quotes because we wanted our actually ceremony to still take place on the 16th.) Obviously the lack of available commercial airspace, individual and family concerns, and other 9/11-related issues kept about half of our loved ones from attending, and we ourselves had planned to fly from our home near Washington, DC. In order to make it to the courthouse in time to get the marriage license, however, we caravaned with our dear friends Scott (Bill’s Best Man) & Amy to the Crescent City. Anne’s maid of honor wasn’t able to make it so her brother Andy stepped in to be her “man of honor”.

You may have read about the wedding day in our anniversary post from last year about the time we had our big blow-out celebration in Cabo. Yeah, we like to mix it up sometimes and have dessert first. 🙂 Who says you have to have the big celebration on an even-numbered year, right? We do have some personal- and work-related travel coming up in the next couple of months about which we’re super excited to share afterward, of course, so stay tuned.

While this time of year is always a bittersweet one for us, we’re grateful to have dedicated ourselves to each other and to our relationship. Its strength is something for which we don’t ever take for granted. Next year, as if we didn’t have enough anniversaries, will be our tenth year running Holland Photo Arts as well. So big celebrations all around. Thank you, our dear family, friends, colleagues and clients for your love and support all these years. It means the world to us.

So a toast to us and to Anne’s parents. They would have been celebrating 49 years today.

Instead of sharing one of “our” weddings this Friday, we thought we’d share our wedding! Here are a few photos from our day, courtesy of our awesome photographer, Johnny Chauvin. Snapshots are courtesy of friends. You might be able to tell the difference. 😉

So much fun walking around the Quarter and getting to see smiles on people’s faces for the first time in too many days.

Our afternoon ceremony in the courtyard of the St. Louis Hotel. We were married at half past 2, same time Anne’s parents were.

Johnny caught Anne’s reaction when the minister asked if she would take Bill as her wife!

Our favorite photo from the day. Just Married!

Anne’s parents on their wedding day – September 16, 1962.

We didn’t have many details (the horror! ;)), but the ones we did have were almost all DIY. Anne painted several birdhouses that represented places we had been together and loved. El Convento hotel in Old San Juan is where we got engaged.

Adore this shot of Bill dancing with his late Mom and so happy she could be there with us that day.

Anne’s brother Andy and his now-wife, Jennifer!.They’ll be celebrating their own 10 year wedding anniversary next year!

Grand exit to bubbles!

Pretty sure you can’t get married in The Big Easy and not do a carriage ride around the Quarter! It was like our own personal parade that day. So cool.

Later that night we met up with the “young folk” for BBQ. Yup, eating BBQ in a tiara. And that is just one of the reasons why B loves A.

Wow, did we really ever look that young? ;-D

Have a wonderful weekend and we’ll see you back here next week when we’ll have a another “real” wedding with you! Real, in quotes, because really, do people have fake weddings?! Oh, wait. Guess we did just that in August 2001. Ha!